2007
by Soulreciever
Summary: It has been seven years since the war ended, how do those left behind cope with the losses they experienced within this year? set of three drabbles, multi pariring
1. Kaleidoscope

2007:

Kaleidoscope 

T: Yet another piece that's been niggling at me for a while, one that I had intended to be a drabble but then the ideas kept coming and this monster…thankfully I stopped myself before it got too silly!

There will be character death here and as it's based seven years into the future of the manga cannon it will be dark. Also as I'm not a mind reader this is my own take on how the fight between the two Kamui's will end and on how each of the characters left alive will deal with this.

It is all clamps, even the obsession that drove me to write this ficy!

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Each winter my mama takes me to place flowers at the base of the tower.

She tells me they are for father and for the others that died during that year…

Tells me that they are to remember what her life had been in that span of time and then she will tell me nothing more.

She has wrapped me in the red coat that I always wear when we are to make the trip and she has pinned back her long hair with a set or bright orange clips.

This hue all the more vibrant for being the only one that she wears on this day.

"Mama, why do you always wear orange in your hair upon this day?"

"To recall the fire of my love for your father, to show that though I grieve I love him still."

She takes my hand in hers and we step out onto the streets of Tokyo.

It is crowded and mama grips my fingers the tighter, fearful now of loosing me amid the press of bodies.

The crowds lessen as we come into sight of the tower and by the time we draw level with its base we are entirely alone.

Mama told me once that there had been crowds here in this place also, but that after the 'war' had ended rumours had begun that a sprit lingered in the metal and thus the crowds had slowly faded until none at all came into the shadow of the structure.

The flowers are white as always and they blend almost imperceptibly into the snow as mama sets them against the tower.

There is another set of flowers upon the snow, the pail pink hue of sakura standing clear amid the virgin white about it.

Its presence is odd for two reasons, the first that always before mama's flowers have been alone upon the snow and the second that the sakura bloom only in the summer.

Mama sets her fingers against the blossoms and her mouth whispers a name before she stands and looks about us.

Her breathing has become rapid and though there is no danger now of my being lost she is griping again tightly to my fingers.

A tension comes to her back, its cause a figure in black who stands just a little before us.

There is a great sadness lined upon his face, sadness that does not reach his mismatched eyes and yet still I feel pity for him…still I yearn to ease his grief.

"Arashi." He has the voice of a killer and looking again to his face I can see the threat of danger hidden within his eyes.

"How are you?" Mama enquires.

"Do you truly wish to know?"

"No." Silence stretches a little then and mama turns to look again at the pink of the sakura blossoms. "Why have I not seen a commemoration from you before this day?" She enquires suddenly.

"I have had want to escape the ghosts of the past behind me and yet there is a rhythm to my life that must be upheld.

"Thus seven years after that day I come to pay homage to our 'saviour'."

There is silence a moment and then mama enquires,

"Is it true that he lingers here still?"

"Yes, but only so that he might maintain the stability of the final keki."

Mama stays only a little after that, talking of absent things that I little comprehend and then she bids this other goodbye and we retreat again into the crowd.

…………………………………………………………………………….

She is dressed in grey today, the colour she reserves usually for work and yet she is not taking me directly to the school as she usually does on a work day.

Instead she has diverted towards the sight of the bridge that had once spanned the harbour.

The sight where once a rainbow has shone…

There are a few pieces of metal visible still within the water broken metal sentinels that have escaped being recycled into the new bridge that stands just up the bay from where we stand.

A figure balances upon one of these shards of metal, its face turned to glance at the rush of the water below it.

Mama instructs me to stay where I am and then she leaps, her body gliding gracefully across the sky until she sets herself onto another of the struts.

She talks a great while with the other figure and then she returns to my side, tears clear in her eyes.

"Mama, why do you cry?"

"Because the world is hard." She replies before she takes my hand in hers and takes me at last to school.

………………………………………………………………………………

We are both dressed in lavender today and this means only one thing.

We are going to visit the broken man.

The broken man always gives me sweets, pets my hair and tells me of the little things that he sees in me that recall to him my father.

Thus though he is quiet and sometimes brash I like visiting him.

He is reading as mama and I come into his living room and it takes him a moment or two to register our presence.

He smiles when he does and placing his book to one side he says,

"Good afternoon, Arashi-san, Kotori-chan."

"Good afternoon, Kamui-kun." I remark as I come to sit at his feet.

His fingers curl into my hair and as always the gesture relaxes me.

"I saw the Sakurazukamori on new years eve."

"How did he seem?"

"Distant."

"Did you ask him home?"

"On that day, no…for we both were concerned more with recalling our losses.

"Yet I sought him out again a week later and recalling your desire to see him broached the request then."

"And?"

"He told me that he would consider the request and then we talked a little on other matters."

Her eyes have grown distant and the empty man stretches to touch her face, the soothing effect of his fingers working even on her ailing heart.

"Do not dwell on the sadness, Arashi." He requests before his hands drop again to my hair.

…………………………………………………………………………….

I awake suddenly and for a moment I register very little as my brain stirs into life.

I then note several things in quick succession.

The azure blue of my room seems almost sapphire; a fact that means it is till a good five hours before dawn.

A set of eyes (One a muted emerald and the other a rich hazel) regard me through my window.

The glass about his hands is the deep crimson of blood…

I scream, the sound an odd immaturity even to my ears and mama is soon at my side, her frail body wrapped tight in the grey of her night dress.

The figure at the window has retreated a little into the shadow of the night and yet still I can see him and the crimson upon the stark white of his skin.

Mama opens the window and crosses out onto the balcony to stand with the other.

The rose of her lips moves in the form of silent words, and the other listens, his own mouth set in a mockery of a smile.

Mama grasps for his hands and I feel sickened as the crimson begins to taint her skin alone.

Mama simply wipes this taint away where she finds the opportunity, the crimson fading to an almost ochre upon the grey of her clothing.

Eventually she convinces him to cross into the house and he presses as a shadow into the hall.

Mama lingers a moment, her eyes fixated upon the faint stain visible still on her fingers and then she smiles and tells me,

"Go back to bed, Kotori." Before she too is gone.

…………………………………………………………………………………

She dresses me in pink when Sunday comes, a hue that recalls to me that sprig of sakura against the snow.

We go to Ueno park with the mismatched man and as we step into the muted whites and browns of the park in winter I spot the pink of sakura clear in the distance.

It is odd to see the branches of just one tree so laden when the rest stand bear and yet odder still is the presence of the broken man, his frail form wrapped against the cold in a leaf green coat that all but swamps him.

The mismatched man touches the broken man's face and for a moment they are both smiling true smiles.

Then the mismatched man steps free of the broken man and begins to chant.

The sakura petals begin to fall about us like snow, first in small flakes and then as vast flurries.

The broken man sets some sort of a shield about us as the flurry becomes thick enough that to even breathe would be hardship.

Eventually the sakura stops falling and my eyes take a second to adjust back to the harsh white of the snow.

The tree is empty now of its blossoms.

At its base lies the mismatched man, his body dappled here and there with sakura so dark in hue that it looks almost as though they are bleeding.

The broken man goes to him and as he lifts the body up into his arms I realise why the sakura is so dark.

……………………………………………………………………………….

She is dressed again in black and yet this time her hair remains free of the orange clip.

I recognise the broken man's face but the others are unknown to me.

Mama has a cheep metal pentagram clutched in her fingers and I note that the others bear also some representation of this symbol.

"Good bye, Subaru, may your next life be a kinder one than this." The broken man remarks as he tosses his pentagram into the coffin.

Each of the strangers say something as they toss their offerings into the grave and then it is mama's turn.

She kisses the metal and says,

"I understand and forgive your actions, Subaru. Understand that love drove you insane jut as it has myself." Then she tosses her offering into the coffin.

We linger to watch the brown soil being pilled in and then we go home.

The broken man is staying with us this evening and mama lets me stay up later than is my usual on a school night.

Once she has tucked me into bed her eyes drift to the faint stain visible still on my window frame and then setting a hand to my face she says,

"Long ago, Kotori there was a boy who was told he was going to die for the love of a woman…"

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T: There we go! R+R and I'll answer all your questions.


	2. Monochrome

Monochrome.

T: I didn't realise it was ambivalent as to which Kamui I killed in the last chapter but then I suppose that's because I'm used to having only a regular set of readers…is nice to have someone new! This chapter will hopefully clear a little of the confusion (Crosses her fingers).

X is not mine and the fic deals with some dark issues…but then being an X fic what do you expect? Oh and spoilers for up to volume 18 of the manga.

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I recall that it was the vivid crimson of blood which was last colour that I saw before the strike of his sword plunges me into the monochromatic world that is now my normal.

I feel still the heat in my eyes as the blade sliced the nerve…feel still the sting as my magic saved what little sight I had left...

The Dark Kamui…Fuuma…takes my pause as opportunity and leaps towards me with his Shinken drawn.

I feel still the helplessness as my body reacted to this movement…

Hear still the sound of his flesh and mussel tearing.

I recall feeling sick and resisting the urge only because of the vein belief that I might still save my friend…

That swift action will reverse what I have done.

His hands caught onto mine as I began to chant, his fingers little points of heat even though the life of him is draining steadily away…

Even though he is dying.

"Stop this, Kamui."

"No."

"You can not save me."

My chest hurt so much that I felt almost as though I could not breathe.

What was this feeling?

My hands moved from his to grasp at his clothing, this action a vein attempt to pin this moment, to steal time before it becomes too late.

I did not know that I had been crying until his hands move again, this time to wipe the tears from my cheek.

"Kamui, all I wish is to protect this world that you live in and so once I am dead I shall maintain the final Keki…shall ensure that this world endures."

"Why?"

I can see still the smile on his lips, that fragile smile that wavers a little as his he begins to lose the strength for even such a simple action.

"It can wait a moment; firstly I need you to recall something."

"Tell me."

"Seishrio's last words were true. Let the Sakurazukamori know that.

"As to the other…I do this because I loved you, Kamui Shirou."

I knew as soon as he said those words why my chest hurt so, why bringing him back to me had been an all consuming passion despite the dark shadows of his heart, thus it is with conviction that I tell him,

"I love you also."

He uses the last of his strength to kiss me, uses his final breath in this our last and only act of intimacy and love.

When he was gone I pulled him to me and simply allowed myself to go numb…allowed the hollowness of my heart to rule me for a while.

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I could not say how long it was that I remained upon the tower, my hands gripped hard to Fuuma's body and my attention fixed upon the dark black splotches of his blood upon my skin.

Could not say how long I had been there before I heard the voice of the Sakurazukamori instruct me,

"Go home, Kamui."

"Why?"

I recall that I sounded so much like him in that moment, recall that for the briefest of instants I could understand his betrayal.

Then he is stealing the weight of Fuuma's body from me and suddenly he is again my enemy, is again little more than Sakurazukamori.

"He wished you to live." He replies as he steps out of my reach.

"For what?"

"You shall have to find the answer to that yourself."

I lifted my head then and was unsurprised to find that he had his back to me, unsurprised that he wished to maintain a distance now between us.

"When a person dies, Subaru, what they say is only ever truth."

He did not react to those words as I had hoped; instead he merely repeated his command of,

"Go home, Kamui."

Before he leapt away into the night sky.

………………………………………………………………………………..

I remain locked in my room for a week, simply thinking on Fuuma's wish and what he had hoped to gain from such a desire.

Arashi came to talk to me and as she spoke of her own misfortune and the choices she had made I found myself understanding at last.

Fuuma had wanted for me to live because there were people still in this world who depended upon me, who looked to me for strength and leadership.

I leave my room at last and gather the remaining seals together so that we can talk of what our lives our to be now the war is over, talk of living for the memory of those who had died in the Year of Destiny.

Time passed swiftly after that, the days marked only by my steady adaptation to my infirmity and to the emptiness that Fuuma's death had left within me.

The birth of little Kotori places a bright light into all of our lives and for a while her existence unites us again.

Makes us whole.

Then Yuzihara receives a call from her Obaachan that has her on the next train home and Aiko is given a promotion situated outside of Tokyo.

Thus by the anniversary of our victory only Arashi and I remain behind to morn the dead and recall the passing of a year.

By the time another year has passed Arashi is alone when she goes to set her flowers against the tower; alone in the want to cling to the past.

Time passes.

Upon graduating from school I procure a quiet job editing manuscripts.

It does not pay all that well, but they have never asked to see my face and mother had left me money enough to buy an apartment and maintain its upkeep.

Arashi moves out of my new home when Kotori is two, yet she returns often to talk to me and to allow me to indulge her daughter a little.

The years begin to blur into one another and it is only in the change in Kotori that I note their passing at all.

Seven years pass before Subaru comes again into my life.

When Arashi had told me that she had seen him, that she had asked him if her would return to us, I had believed that an end to it.

Had believed that he would not again cross onto our path.

Then Arashi brings him with her the next she comes to see me.

He looks pail to my eyes, his skin stark white against the solid black of his clothes, yet he lives and that is a comfort to me.

"I did not think that I would see you again."

"I have made a choice that I had want for you to hear, Kamui."

"Tell me."

"It has been seven years since the Rainbow Bridge fell and he has not come back to me as I had hoped vainly that he might.

"Thus I am faced with an eternity as I am now…an eternity empty and alone but for the screams of those who feed the tree.

"Though I can face the thought of living empty, I can not listen any more to those screams,

"Thus I am going to exorcise the tree."

"Is that not dangerous?"

"There is risk, of course and yet it does not matter to me whether I die or no."

I little like his tone and I suspect there is more than a minimal risk to this action.

There is a way to steer his mind from this course and though I feel guilty in using it I know it is the only choice.

"If you die, Subaru, his last remnant will fade also."

His had raises to touch his right eye and for a moment I believe I have won this argument, believe that he shall give up on this idea.

Then he smiles and says,

"I am the only one who cares whether he endures or no, thus for his essence to fade will not be the greatest of tragedies."

"Subaru, I understand why you wish simply to let go, for I also had such a want at the ending of that year. Yet Fuuma died so that I might live and though I am broken, though I shall never love again I shall honour his sacrifice.

"Shall live in his memory and shall live in the knowledge that he cared for me."

"If you truly believe that, Kamui, why have you not visited the tower for six years? Why do you not set flowers to the base of the tower as Arashi does?"

He stands then and bowing to Arashi remarks,

"Thank you for bringing me to him, Arashi and you are welcome still to come with me on Sunday should you wish."

Before he is gone from the apartment.

…………………………………………………………………………….

I decide to go the park simply because I wish him to know that though I disapprove I am still his friend.

Kotori is with them and she looks so different in the pail grey that I associate with pink, that fro a moment she does not seem as the same little girl that I have so fallen in love with.

Then she reaches for my hand as Subaru begins his chanting and the familiar pattern of her palm settles the odd discomfort I had felt.

The sakura reacts violently to the spell and when one of the blossoms slices a small cut across the back of my leg I raise a barrier against them.

Both Subaru and the tree are dead when I lower the barrier again and yet there is such a smile to the older man's face that I find I can not be angry at him.

For in death he has found his peace at last.

I attend the funeral with the other seals and mumble some fitting last words to the Onmyoji before I leave the graveyard.

I wonder the streets of Tokyo aimlessly and it is only when I no longer feel the press of others about me that I realise where my feet have taken me.

The tower has not changed since I gazed the last upon its splendour.

I think to leave and then I recall Subaru's last enquiry to me,

'Why have you not visited the tower for six years?'

I was afraid.

I knew that without question or thought and yet why? What was there to fear?

Stealing my nerve I leapt for the flat roof of the observation deck and settling myself into a meditating stance enquired,

"Fuuma…will you come and talk to me?"

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T: Yes that is where I am going to leave it…mean aren't I? The next chapy might be a while in coming both because it shall be the last and because it deals with Kakyo who is my white wheal as far as X characters go…R+R as I'm addicted to praise!


	3. Fog

Fog.

T: Well here is the last drabble in this series and it claims the dubious honour of being the shortest one…I wish it was longer but I really and truly do not get Kakyo after a certain point…meh, I blame X TV and its very confusing conclusion. Silver Salamander, that particular sentence also stumped me, I was attempting to say that in that colour Kotori looked suddenly her true age and that Kamui found that disconcerting because he had a want for her to be a little girl always! Moving on, it's not mine and yep the warnings remain the same.

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Everything had passed as he had foreseen up until the very moment that the Kamui of the Dragons of Heaven ducks when he should have leapt and the Shinken slices across his eyes instead of through his heart.

From that moment Kakyo Kizuki is faced with images that he has never seen before…face with a new future.

Always before the future he has see has come to pass…

No matter how desperately he had fought to make it otherwise, to steer the future to a more preferable course.

Again that pail figure takes her last walk towards a figure beneath the sakura tree…

Again she casts one last, useless, spell.

Why when he could not save her even with the purest of intentions, had Kamui escaped his fate with but the barest of moments?

For what purpose had Kakyo been saved?

The Kamui of the Dragons of Earth had been the only one who could grant his desire…

Or, at least, that had been what the boy had said and though it had been odd, though there were many with power enough to kill him, her had believed him.

'Kamui' always told the truth when it came to the matter of wishes.

Thus Kakyo is fated now to simply exist….

To wonder through the fog of life without guide or purpose.

He lingers in the bright life of his sea dreamscape, thinking on the things that might have been if only fate had moved for him, if only he had had half the luck of Kamui.

His depression becomes as a fog at the very back of his mind…a fog that slowly encroaches onto the sea until it has faded and then it moves slowly onto his body.

He has lost his legs by the time a familiar figure enters the dreamscape, something that the Sakurazukamori observes and then dismisses without comment.

"The Kamui of the Dragons of Earth told me that we share a common heart ache." He remarks.

Unbidden the familiar play of the figures beneath the cherry tree blossoms into life before them, the image clear still despite the fog.

No matter what he has become or the dark shadows within his heart the Sakurazukamori still can not watch the conclusion of this event and as he turns away from the dream Kakyo can almost believe that he sees despair in his one remaining green eye.

"I loved that girl completely and her death is what had brought me to this moment. I had a wish to die, a wish 'Kamui' had promised to fulfil before the final day and yet…

"Destiny has not taken the course you had hoped and thus your Wish has been stolen from you."

"Yes."

The Sakurazukamori regards him for a moment and then he says,

"I too had my Wish taken from me because of the desire of another and so comprehending your pain I offer to grant you your Wish as I shall soon grant my own."

Kakyo regards that face, so like hers and yet so different and smiling remarks,

"Then do what you will."

The blow is swift and as he fades, at last, into the release of death he recalls the last words of a woman who had had no heart.

'It is a wonderful thing to die at the hands of the one you love.'

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T: A few things here before I go…I've assumed that the reason Fuuma and Fuuma alone could kill Kakyo is that he had want to die at Hokuto's hands and at the time Fuuma made the statement Subaru had not even appeared and thus Fuuma was the only one who could look as Hokuto. It is Kakyo's blood upon Subaru's hands when he goes to see Arashi in case anyone was curious. Subaru believes that in using the sprits of the tree to aid his suicide he is, somehow, getting Sei-chan to kill him…is Subaru logic and thus makes only a teeny amount of sense. Finally this quote from Setsuka is most likely wrong as I don't currently have X16 to refer to…sorry if this is the case. R+R to keep me happy!


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